HP ProLiant MicroServer

[D4N]

Thanks - apparently the 6450 has more shaders 160 vs 80.

Do you know of anyone using this card in the microserver?

Wondering which would be better to get - apparently the 6450 doesn't come with a lp bracket - but I suppose I can make one.

I have a Sapphire 6450 in my microserver, works fine and the LP bracket was included in the box

 

[SomeoneEls]

Nvidia: GT520 - best performing NVidia card that fits within the HP MS power limitations.
Radeon: 6450 - ditto but only if you feel like playing with drivers or will be running Windows.

Any other dedicated HTPC using XBMC (i.e. not on the HP MS): Nvidia GT430. It's tweaked for video playback but requires more power the HP MS can supply.

+1

Would it be a major problem if I were to put the GT210 and use Windows????

Nope should work just fine, I've got a GT210 in one and it works fine even for the HD stuff I've got, which isn't a lot... So I can't say it will work 100% with a 26GB mkv but it handles all my content just fine.

Nvidia drivers are fine in both windows and linux

 

[thedon124]

+1



Nope should work just fine, I've got a GT210 in one and it works fine even for the HD stuff I've got, which isn't a lot... So I can't say it will work 100% with a 26GB mkv but it handles all my content just fine.

Nvidia drivers are fine in both windows and linux

Thanks for this. Gonna go pick one up tomorrow.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

cbrunsdonza should do a guide on how he got his HD5450 working with Linux/XBMC.

Good idea, I will gladly do it. Very easy and does not require a Linux guru to do it. Will do it over the weekend. Got the ATI drivers working perfectly even though I had to compile them.

 

[shadow_man]

ZFS and she's flying.

My ZFS flies - 4x 2TB Samsung's running in Raidz1.

See below. I can run further tests / comment on config if you like? OS: Debian Squeeze , ZFS install = zfs-fuse , apt-get install zfs-fuse (as easy as that)

Can anyone post their read / write speeds for us? I'd like to see how the other raid setups are fairing e.g. raid 5 etc.

##WRITE SPEED TEST
root@nasty:/nas# time dd if=/dev/zero of=/nas/test.dbf bs=8k count=1048576
1048576+0 records in
1048576+0 records out
8589934592 bytes (8.6 GB) copied, 100.646 s, 85.3 MB/s

real 1m40.660s
user 0m0.268s
sys 0m29.346s

##READ SPEED TEST
oot@nasty:/nas# time dd if=/nas/test.dbf of=/dev/null bs=8k
1048576+0 records in
1048576+0 records out
8589934592 bytes (8.6 GB) copied, 35.8288 s, 240 MB/s

real 0m35.847s
user 0m0.220s
sys 0m13.709s


##READ AND WRITE SPEED TEST
root@nasty:/nas# time dd if=/nas/test.dbf of=/dev/null bs=8k
1048576+0 records in
1048576+0 records out
8589934592 bytes (8.6 GB) copied, 35.8288 s, 240 MB/s

real 0m35.847s
user 0m0.220s
sys 0m13.709s
root@nasty:/nas# time dd if=/dev/zero of=/nas/test.dbf bs=8k count=1048576
1048576+0 records in
1048576+0 records out
8589934592 bytes (8.6 GB) copied, 87.2957 s, 98.4 MB/s

real 1m27.350s
user 0m0.248s
sys 0m29.086s

 

[greg_SA]

jsheed_sa - Is that speed between two machines?

I'm running OpenSUSE on my Microserver, and using a Samba share to a Windows machine, I only get around 30Mbytes/sec over gigabit Ethernet. Is this normal for samba?

 

[Sentari]

Pity the server doesnt support VMDirectPath. Oh well will have to look at another VM / HTPC Solution

 

[shadow_man]

jsheed_sa - Is that speed between two machines?

I'm running OpenSUSE on my Microserver, and using a Samba share to a Windows machine, I only get around 30Mbytes/sec over gigabit Ethernet. Is this normal for samba?

That's a test run on the box itself. I just logged in via ssh and proceeded to test. I regularly copy to the device and it never feels slow. I can run a test to my pc later and see. You need to enable jumbo packets for a gigabit network I think or you run in to speed issues (can't remember where I read that though).

Atleast I had to with Debian. What file system are you using?

Can you try ssh in to your box and run my write tests? Just change nas to the name of your pool (if you are using zfs). If you aren't using ZFS then I recommend you do - its a really fast and efficient file system.

With your bad speeds - are you copying from or to the HP? I can run some tests for you, just let me know which way you are copying.

Also all my shares are Samba and that speed is definitely not normal.

J

 

[greg_SA]

That's a test run on the box itself. I just logged in via ssh and proceeded to test. I regularly copy to the device and it never feels slow. I can run a test to my pc later and see. You need to enable jumbo packets for a gigabit network I think or you run in to speed issues (can't remember where I read that though).

Atleast I had to with Debian. What file system are you using?

Can you try ssh in to your box and run my write tests? Just change nas to the name of your pool (if you are using zfs). If you aren't using ZFS then I recommend you do - its a really fast and efficient file system.

With your bad speeds - are you copying from or to the HP? I can run some tests for you, just let me know which way you are copying.

Also all my shares are Samba and that speed is definitely not normal.

J

Thanks for the help. I'll look at your suggestions.

I am copying from Windows to the HP. I have two drives in the HP - system drive (ext4 partition) and data drive (ntfs). The ntfs drive is just temporary. I get around 20-30Mbytes/sec to both drives.

 

[yeti]

Seems normal with no RAID?

 

[greg_SA]

Seems normal with no RAID?

Don't know about that... I can get 100 Mbyte/sec between two internal drives in my Win XP machine.

Seems I got my direction confused...

Both copies were initiated from the Win XP machine...

...to the HP (OpenSuse, ntfs, samba share)... only got 8 Mbytes/sec!

... from the HP (OpenSuse, ntfs, samba share)... get 30 Mbytes/sec

I have enabled jumbo frames...

I have read that Windows XP uses SMB1.0, which Vista and Win7 use SMB2.0... so that might be the issue?

 

[Boomstomp]

I think the issue might be the NTFS partitioning on the HP data drive... just a rumour I heard somewhere...

My Wootware hdd's should be arriving today, if I get time over the weekend to do my setup I'll post it here.

For now I'm only going to be running one of my HP servers, more as a test case. If it works I'll save some money and make the other one an uberMicroserver

 

[yeti]

Don't know about that... I can get 100 Mbyte/sec between two internal drives in my Win XP machine.

7200rpm HDDs?

 

[greg_SA]

7200rpm HDDs?

One is 7200rpm. other is 5900rpm... but internally, in my Win XP machine, I get 100 MB/s

I have tried using the HP system drive (Linux Ext4 partition) - same result, so NTFS doesn't seem to be the issue...

 

[iEverything]

Selling my MicroServer, really nice piece of kit but in my Apple Eco home where I want to WiFi stream to IOS the signal is terrible so went with a Mac Mini

Tried to post this on Classifieds but need some 50 points......

If anyone is interested BidorBuy "HP MicroServer NL36"

 

[SomeoneEls]

Selling my MicroServer, really nice piece of kit but in my Apple Eco home where I want to WiFi stream to IOS the signal is terrible so went with a Mac Mini

Tried to post this on Classifieds but need some 50 points......

If anyone is interested BidorBuy "HP MicroServer NL36"

Surely that would be a problem with the Canyon WiFi USB dongle 300n and not the Microserver. Anyways good luck selling it. Might be easier to sell all the addons separately.

 

[Deezil]

Ordered the DDR5 version of the Sapphire HD6450 ... since no-one else seems to be running one I will leave feedback as to fitment and whether LP bracket is included once it arrives.

The 1Gb DDR3 version as sold by Esquire most definitely has the LP bracket included but I'm a bit sceptical about the whole passive heatsink idea in such a crammed space (and summer approaching and all that jazz if anyone is interested )

 

[Off-The-Chart]

Ordered the DDR5 version of the Sapphire HD6450 ... since no-one else seems to be running one I will leave feedback as to fitment and whether LP bracket is included once it arrives.

The 1Gb DDR3 version as sold by Esquire most definitely has the LP bracket included but I'm a bit sceptical about the whole passive heatsink idea in such a crammed space (and summer approaching and all that jazz if anyone is interested )

that has to be the OC model because according to Sapphire's site, no other smaller versions have LP included. only the 2gig and the OC'd version. (but some1 can correct me if I am wrong)

 

[Deezil]

that has to be the OC model because according to Sapphire's site, no other smaller versions have LP included. only the 2gig and the OC'd version. (but some1 can correct me if I am wrong)

I honestly don't think Sapphire themselves have a clue what they include in the box in which version if the whole different versions from Frontosa / Esquire thing is correct ... it's purely pot luck it seems!

Newegg usually includes a photo of the content of the box but once again there's no guarantee that it's the same as ours (even if the model numbers are an exact match)

Either way I think you may have your facts the wrong way around ... the OC model and 2Gb jobbie are the only ones that doesn't show a picture of the 2 included LP brackets and they are the only ones that specifically mentions that the brackets are optional (in the listed accessories)

I'm just holding thumbs

 

[D4N]

There's a sticker on the box, DDR3 Sapphire 6450